Sherry Coker has spent the last nine years working her way up at Ozarks Technical Community College, from an adjunct instructor in 2003 to the current director for the Center for Workforce Development.
In her role, Coker provides leadership to a team of business and program managers who collaborate with human resources managers, training directors, plant operations managers, mid-level executives and Missouri state workforce development officials.
She further connects those managers with funding and necessary educational opportunities to new and existing employees, providing solutions and connecting resources for technical training and general education to workforces in the Springfield community.
“Helping an individual land her dream job or a company increase revenues or reduce expenses is an amazing feeling and accomplishment,” Coker says. “My motivation stems from my desire to be the change I want to see. I am naturally a doer, not an observer. I see something that needs to be done and I do it. I am also motivated by the success of those I am privileges to lead and collaborate with; I believe their success is my success.”
In the past two years, Coker has graduated from two leadership programs: Leadership Gold and Leadership OTC. Selected from a pool of 500 employees, Coker was also chosen as one of 15 to participate in the inaugural Chancellor’s Leadership Academy in 2011.
“I have been promoted twice in the last two yeas at OTC. It means a lot to know that the administration of OTC have faith in my abilities, experience and dedication,” she said. “The influence I have on those in my workplace stems from their trust in me and what I’m trying to accomplish for the department. I work to follow Stephen Covey’s model for influence by doing something positive about things I can control and not wasting time on things I can’t. I work hard to listen, understand, be sincere and empathetic and admit to my own mistakes.”
In 2009, Coker founded the Mid-America Technology Alliance, an organization that connects people to the technology resources they need to be successful. MATA was originally funded by a grant Gov. Jay Nixon made available to community colleges, but it has since morphed into a nonprofit organization. As the current executive director of MATA, Coker works to promote the regions’ technology economy.
“The organization has taken on a life of its own and is truly connecting people to the technology sources they need to be successful,” she said. “I am most proud of this project in particular.”
Through hard work, Coker says she has learned a lot in life, a lesson she learned early growing up on a farm in the small-rural community of Billings.
“My parents showed me what hard work really was,” she said.
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